The permanent secretary of the ministry, Andrew Adejo, made this known during the 2022 World Teachers Day press briefing held in Abuja.

Recall that in 2021, Buhari had promised to release bursaries to students studying education in universities and colleges of education.

“Undergraduates of B.Ed/B.A. Ed/BSc. Ed in Public institutions are to receive stipends of N75,000.00 per semester while NCE students will get N50,000.00 as stipends per semester.

“Federal Government should find the modality through which respective states’ governments could provide automatic employment for NCE graduates at Basic Education level,” Buhari had said through his minister of education, Adamu Adamu.

Speaking to the press, Adejo said, “The implementation of the payment of stipends has commenced.

However, due to the strike, we have not been able to get the data of all the students in universities. We only have 7 per cent of the required data to be processed for payment.”

Speaking further, Adejo said, “I must state here that the national implementation of the New National Teaching Policy has commenced. It is a holistic package that will ultimately address the career path, remuneration, professional teaching standards, qualification, deployment and management of teachers.

“The theme for the year 2022 WTD which is ‘the transformation of education begins with teachers’ strongly stresses the importance of empowering teachers for the effective transformation of education to ensure quality teaching and learning as well as galvanize technological advancements to meet the ever-changing needs for national growth and development.”

Our correspondent learnt that a decision on whether to suspend or continue with the strike which enters its 155th day on Tuesday (today), will be taken at the meeting.

ASUU on Monday, February 14, 2022 embarked on the industrial action over what the union described as the failure of the government to address some of its demands.

The chairman of ASUU, Federal University of Technology, Minna chapter, Dr. Gbolahan Bolarin, confirmed the planned meeting.

Bolarin said the meeting would be held either on July 30 or August 1, 2022.

ASUU had cautioned the government against the proliferation of tertiary institutions and the failure to approve the deployment of the Universities Transparency Accountability System.

The union had also insisted on the release of the White Paper of the visitation panels to universities and the release of revitalisation funds for the development of universities, among others.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, recently accused the union of engaging in a lopsided agreement with the Federal Government through the Prof Nimi Briggs committee.

Ahead of the NEC meeting however, Bolarin ruled out the possibility of suspending the strike.

According to him, the government has not brought anything to the table that can lead to such decision.

“We are not even at a point to vote on continuation or not because there is nothing from the Federal Government yet. The NEC will be holding its meeting early next month (August). That should be August 1. The meeting might even be on July 30,” he said.

According to him, the disposition of the government as regards the ongoing industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities shows that it does not understand how the university system works.

Ushie said, “This government has not even shown that it understands the university system. No government, which understands the value and essence of education, will tolerate a strike for one day. The government has tied our two hands behind our backs. Having done that to us, they have also told us not to cry, because if we do, they will not give us water to drink.

“Does it make sense whether I cry or I don’t cry? The point is that my hands are tied behind my back. Government behaves this way. They give us a strong slap and tell us how to open our mouths.”

He berated the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajuiba; and the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, for their disposition towards the strike, which according to him, is not surprising.

The don stated, “I am not surprised that Emeka Nwajiuba and Ngige are saying all the things they have been saying since the strike started. This government is not taking education seriously. All these government officials saying all these things are just showing how ignorant they are.One of them even said lecturers, who want to earn more than N416,000, should go into politics or so. You can just imagine the disrespect! I am even thankful to God that they have not decided to dissolve all the federal universities in the country and put all the lecturers in gas chambers. Maybe, until that is done, people will not understand that this is a serious weapon to destroy education.”

But the Federal Government on its part believes that the ongoing strike would be called off soon, saying it was taken aback by the renewed strike which university teachers embarked on February 14, 2022.

Addressing the resumed conciliation meeting with the union on Tuesday, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said government was surprised ASUU negated the understanding and assurances it gave through the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council(NIREC) led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar and the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria , Rev. Supo Ayokunle.

According to the Minister who was in Botswana for the meeting of the African Regional Labour Administrative Centre(ARLAC) when ASUU declared action, said he thought the university teachers and their employer, the Ministry of Education would have resolved the areas of disputes within days.

“I sincerely thought ASUU and the Ministry of Education would have resolved the issues, which hopefully are not major areas of dispute, warranting industrial action. To my surprise , I came back , and the strike is still on. Be that as it may, it is the mandate of my Ministry to apprehend industrial disputes wherever they occur and we have apprehended this.

“ From this negotiation we are having today, ASUU will appreciate that government means no harm. This is because even if there are still lapses in implementation of agreement , they are not such that will lead to industrial action. To that extent , we have to do everything possible to resolve this.

But I must tell you that on the government side, they were taken by surprise in that before then, NIREC met with you(ASUU) and reported to the President. Having met with you (ASUU) and having given the details of their meeting with you, we sincerely hoped we won’t again take this route of industrial action. So, the government side is taken by surprise- Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and all are taken aback.”

Ngige, however, assured that the strike had been apprehended by his ministry and that the ongoing conciliation would prepare ground for an expanded meeting which will involve NIREC.

“It is my mandate to apprehend industrial disputes and this has been apprehended so we can discuss, and later expand to what is called tripartite plus meeting, involving members of NIREC who are top religious and traditional rulers, we cannot push aside. And that is as soon as we are done and agree on issues here.”

The minister expressed optimism that the strike would be called off soon to enable students go back to school.

“It should not be one month strike. In fact there is nothing like one month strike or warning strike in labour parlance. Strike is strike. We want this to end as soon as possible, as we sort out all grey areas in the agreement as the ILO Principles At Work allows for renegotiation of Collective Bargaining Agreement. So we go back to the draft agreement. We must avoid another situation where our children bear the brunt of two elephants fighting,” he added.

The house at the plenary on Tuesday, specifically urged the Ministry of Labour, Employment & Productivity and ASUU to “adhere to the clauses and provisions of the previous Memorandum of Understanding and the Memorandum of Action in the interest of Nigerian students and education sector in Nigeria and call off the warning strike.”

The House also mandated its Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity and Committee on Tertiary Education and Services to interface with the Ministries of Labour, Employment and Productivity; Education; Civil Society Organisations; Nigeria Inter-Religious Council and ASUU to “address the outstanding issues that are precipitating the current warning strike by members of ASUU.”

These resolutions followed the unanimous adoption of a motion moved by a member of the House, Dozie Nwankwo, titled ‘Urgent Need to Address the Frequent Strike Actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.’

Nwankwo recalled the meetings by the relevant stakeholders, which led to the call-off of the ASUU strike that lasted nine months – from March to December 2020.

The lawmaker decried the “individual and corporate pains the strike action inflicted on Nigerian students, parents and the education sector, to the extent that it disrupted the academic calendar and impacted negatively on the teaching staff, their families and the depreciating standards of Nigeria’s public universities.”

He noted the “benefits and advantages” of the demands of ASUU on the overall interests of Nigeria’s public institutions and the well-being of the personnel, which includes funding for the revitalisation of public universities and signing and implementation of the renegotiated 2009 FGN- ASUU Agreement, amongst others.

The Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

He said the Minister for Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, will be meeting with the executives of the union and other relevant government agencies.

”The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, by 1.00 p:m at the minister’s conference room,” he said.

ASSU had on Monday Feb. 14 ordered its workers to embarked on a four-week roll-over total and comprehensive strike to press home their demands.

Part of the association’s demands include funding for the revitalization of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution and promotion arrears.

Others are the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement and the inconsistencies in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The lecturers also alleged that none of its demands had been fully met by the Federal Government.